Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/90

80, where the English possess several islands, communication with which they may obstruct in time of war: that the possession of the river Columbia, and the establishment of Astorita, on the Pacific Ocean, which Great Britain ceded to them by the last treaty of commerce, will open a wide field for their enterprises and commercial speculations,—while at the same time the two Floridas will afford them a great abundance of excellent ship timber, and the bay of Tampa will supply them with all the advantages to form a commodious, safe, and spacious port. On the right of the Mississippi, they possess an immense country, where they already have establishments of great consideration; and New Orleans appears naturally destined to become the emporium of the wealth, which a commerce with the productions of these vast regions, and those of the East, as well as the consumption by their inhabitants, must produce, if the augmentation of population, and the progress of industry in those countries, should at all correspond with the magnificent hopes of the people of the Union. They enjoy a still greater advantage: that of being able to dispose of their property, of their estates, their labour, and their industry, at their own pleasure, and as they judge most conducive to their interests. Another advantage, in which they are alike superiour to all other people, is that of not being obliged to contend with monopolies or privileged